In a tournament where team results didn't matter but individual accomplishments could put Arizona on the tennis map, the Wildcat men's tennis team was able to gain respect but couldn't overcome later-round competition.

Junior Colin O'Grady and sophomore Roger Matalonga both defeated their first-round opponents but had to bow out in the second round.

O'Grady battled higher-ranked Sven Swinnen of Oregon in the first round, and after a hard-fought, three-set match, O'Grady came out on top 7-6, 6-7, 7-6.

"I wasn't nervous at all," O'Grady said. "I was really playing well. I felt that I was serving well. It made everything so much easier. Neither of us got a chance to break the other one, and it really decided how the match turned out."

However, the second-round matchup proved to be much tougher, as O'Grady, who played on little sleep after waking up at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning, had to face Balazs Veress of California. Veress earned the victory 7-5, 6-1.

O'Grady said he was sleeping under the tent and woke up only 10 minutes before the match.

"I was pretty out of it when we started," he said. "The guy has an incredible backhand. His return was a lot better. After he won the first set, I was pretty much done."

Matalonga defeated Daniel Chu in the first round 7-6, 4-6, 6-3. Moments later, Matalonga's second-round match against Patrick Briaud of California began, and Matalonga ran out of gas. He was forced to retire because of cramps.

In other first-round matches, sophomore Daniel Andrus and senior Whi Kim lost to Alex Vlaski of Washington and Manuel Kost of Oregon, respectively.

The doubles main draw featured the team of Matalonga and O'Grady. The duo won its first-round match Friday over Johan Berg and Adriano Biaselia of Southern California 8-6. In the second round, the pair lost to Briaud and Veress of California 7-5, 6-1.

In the invitational part of the tournament, junior Paul Warkentin got to the quarterfinals after defeating Eric McKean of Stanford and Nick Hegarty of Arizona State. Playing in front of friends and family - the event was close to Warkentin's hometown of Santa Barbara, Calif. - Warkentin excelled in his first two matches.

"The key was to come out and try to stay relaxed," Warkentin said. "I got a little bit jumpy in the first round, but I settled down and played my game."

Against Hegarty, Warkentin struggled in the first set but was able to pull it out before cruising in the second set.

"It was a tough first set," Warkentin said. "A couple of points could have gone either way. I just got a lot of confidence after that. I beat him two weeks ago at Arizona State, so I had confidence that I could beat him again. I don't like losing to ASU guys."

In the quarterfinal match, Warkentin fell to Aaron Yovan of UCLA 6-3, 6-0.

"It was embarrassing," Warkentin said. "It was probably my worst college match. I didn't put a single ball in the court. It was pretty tough."